Yamaguchi Hagi Reverberatory Furnace

These ruins of a reverberatory furnace (a metal melting furnace) were constructed in 1856 by the Hagi Domain. They were an attempt to replicate the Western style of iron cannon casting. The ruins that remain today are only a portion of the chimney, and were actually a prototype, not a working furnace; however, the remains show the trial and error of the Hagi (Choshu) Domain. The remains of these types of furnaces exist in only a few areas of Japan. The remaining ruins of these furnaces are only the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace in Shizuoka Prefecture, the Former Shuseikan in Kagoshima Prefecture, and this one. The site was designated as a World Heritage Site as an industrial heritage of Japan during the Meiji Period.